his splendid gifts must not preclude attention to the benefits conferred about the same period by other friends of the College. They were such, indeed, as to indicate that the interest felt in this institution had suffered no abatement.

In September, 1724, died very suddenly a great grandson of Sir Richard Saltonstall, and one of the brightest ornaments of Harvard College and of New England, the Hon. Gurdon Saltonstall, Governor of Connecticut, leaving to his alma mater a legacy of one hundred pounds.

His gifted and excellent widow, Madam Mary Saltonstall, died in 1730, and by her will increased her former bounty to the College by a legacy of one thousand pounds, "the income whereof to be improved for the assistance of two persons, who shall by the Overseers be esteemed of bright parts and good diligence, (always a Dissenter,) to fit them for the service of the Church of Christ," those related to her "by consanguinity to be preferred." Her gifts now constitute a fund of $3899.97.

Another lady of that name, Madam Dorothy Saltonstall, who had been formerly the wife of John Frizell, Esq., bequeathed, in 1733, three hundred pounds for the benefit of two poor scholars.

A nephew of John Frizell, Esq., Mr. John Frizell, of Boston, merchant, in 1731, bequeathed two hundred and fifty pounds.

Mrs. Anne Mills bequeathed £50; John Walley, Esq., of Boston, £100; and Thomas Richards, Esq., £30.

The Hon. Thomas Fitch, of Boston, in 1737, left a legacy of "three hundred pounds for the education of scholars of good capacity for the work of the ministry."

Presents of plate were made to the College by different persons.

"In 1727, the Rev. Thomas Cotton of London gave £200, the income of £100 for the increase of the President's salary, the other hundred to be laid out in books for the Library."

The Library was also augmented by valuable donations from the Rev. Dr. John Guye, Mr. John Lloyd of London, Merchant, Doct. Richard Mead, D. James, Esq., and Bishop Berkeley. The great man last mentioned, so renowned in the learned world, and celebrated by his friend Pope as possessing "every virtue under Heaven," honored this College with a visit, September 17th, 1731, and received the attentions which were due to his high character. The books presented by him were the Latin and Greek classics.1

1 Christian Examiner, VII. p. 91.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE condition of the College, however, does not appear, during this period, to have corresponded to the great things that were doing for it. It is not necessary, for the purpose of showing this, to transcribe from the records, acts which, though made to prevent irregularities of different kinds, might not be regarded as very material in this view; the act, for instance, passed in the latter part of President Leverett's time "for reforming the Extravagancys of Commencements," and providing "that henceforth no preparation nor provision of either Plumb Cake, or Roasted, Boyled, or Baked Meates or Pyes of any kind shal be made by any Commencer," and that no no "such have any distilled Lyquours in his Chamber or any composition therewith," under penalty of a fine of twenty shillings and forfeiture of the "prohibited provisions";- and the several acts passed early in the present administration "for preventing the Excesses, Immoralities, and Disorders of the Commencements," for enforcing the foregoing act, providing particularly "that if any, who now doe or hereafter shall stand for their degrees, presume to doe any thing contrary to the said Act or goe about to evade it by Plain Cake," they shall forfeit the honors of the College.

Acts of this description, as also a recommendation of the Overseers to the Corporation "to pass an act to

restrain unsuitable and unreasonable dancings in the College," and even a vote to prevent the recurrence of the "great disturbances occasioned by tumultuous and indecent noyses at the College," may be regarded, perhaps, rather as indications of the spirit of the times, than as evidences of any unusual corruption in this society. That the College was not in a very healthy state, however, at this time, the records contain evidences, which no such consideration can annul, though may in some degree soften them.

it

A Committee, appointed by the Overseers November 1st, 1731, "to enquire into the state of the Government, Instruction, and Accompts of the College," &c. reported September 6th, 1732, "That the Government of the said College was but in a weak and declining state." The Committee then proposed a new body of Laws, &c.

The result was that a new body of Laws was made and finally "agreed to, both by the Overseers and Corporation."

It was voted, September 24th, 1734, "That it be recommended to the Corporation to get the new body of Laws translated into Latin," &c. The same day "it was published in the College Hall." 1

Previously to these proceedings, Harvard College experienced some agitation, in consequence of a religious explosion, which had taken place in Connecticut and thrown a gloom over New England. This was the declaration by the Rev. Timothy Cutler, Rector of Yale College, and one of the Tutors, with five clergymen in that vicinity, against the validity of Presbyterian ordination. A shock, so strange and vio

1 Overseer's Records.

lent, to the order of the New-England churches, filled the hearts of all pious Congregationalists with amazement and sorrow.

The Trustees of Yale College voted "to excuse the Rev. Mr. Cutler from all further service." He then went to England, received Episcopal ordination, was honored with the degree of Doctor in Divinity from both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and soon afterwards came to Boston, where he was made Rector of Christ Church, which was founded for him.2

A deep interest was taken in the event by Harvard College, at the time of its occurrence. At the inauguration of Professor Wigglesworth, for instance, Mr. Colman, in his prayer upon that occasion, "bewailed what was befallen Yale College." "

1 Clap's Hist. of Yale College, p. 32.

2 Eliot's Biog. Dict., art. Cutler. Holmes's Amer. Annals, II. p. 143, note.

3 Chief Justice Sewall, in his Diary, has the following mention of it: "1722, 7ber 25, Tuesday. Dr. I. Mather pray'd, much bewail'd the Connecticut Apostasie, that Mr. Cutler and others should say there was no minister in N. E."

The Rev. Dr. Eliot relates an anecdote of a somewhat earlier period, which shows the feelings of parties in relation to their mode of ordination. It happened in the case of Mr. Israel Chauncy, the son of President Chauncy. "Israel," says Dr. Eliot, "lived longer than the others; he was the youngest son, and died soon after the commencement of the eighteenth century. His ordination has generally been styled the leather-mitten ordination, and much ridicule has been thrown upon it by Episcopal writers. The fact was, that when he was settled, the laymen of the Council insisted upon their right of laying on hands, and one of the brethren forgot to take off his mitten; hence it has been made to appear as a ludicrous circumstance to lessen the solemnity of the Congregational mode of separating ministers. It was not long after this, that in Connecticut and Massachusetts the clergy deprived the brethren of this privilege. But could we now refuse them, if they insisted upon it?"— Eliot's Biog. Dict., art. Chauncy, p. 101, note.